Vanished like velvet
by MindoftheSongbird
Summary: She awoke one morning, and it was gone. Where was it? It was broken and no longer usable. Cute HopexLight Fluff! One-shot, enjoy!


Hello once again~! This is just a cute, little one-shot, mainly HopexLight fluffiness. And some slight humor. Gotta have that.

**Disclaimer~!~!~!** I still don't own any part of the Final Fantasy franchise. Or the FFF, I guess lol

Enjoy!

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><p>The morning air of Gran Pulse was a little too cold for Lightning when she woke early in the morning. The others were close to waking, as they had retired earlier than usual for the night previous. She saw that Fang and Snow were up and heading towards the small pond that was nearby. She heard Sazh mumble something incoherent, one could tell that he was definitely angry at whatever outside force that had woke him up. Vanille was slowly coming to as well, with the baby chocobo hovering above her head and saying its own good morning to her. And Hope? The young teen always seemed to be the last to wake, always. It was almost a ritual. Lightning supposed that it was because he was still a growing boy, and as that, he needed plenty of sleep. Everyone tried to accommodate to that, and always took great care in making as little noise as possible while they got ready for the ongoing journey.<p>

Though this morning was different, as he was jolted awake by the soft, but sharp sound of a sneeze coming from woman who had taken a seat on the ground next to him. He mumbled a soft 'bless you' to her, and attempted to roll over, but ended up bumping into something soft and bare. Lightning stared at him as a shade of red tinged his face. For some reason, he just couldn't remove his face from the softness of her bare thigh. He chanced a glance at her out of the corner of his eye, and was not surprised at the annoyed look that she held in her gaze.

She attempted to scold him for doing such a thing; however, when she opened her mouth to speak, only hoarse, almost unheard words left her mouth. "..-ope…move." Why were words so scratchy? Why could she hardly use her voice at all? It _hurt_ whenever she tried. "..-ope. Damnit!" She whispered a curse at the painful sound of her voice. She couldn't even say Hope's name!

His eyes widened and his ears hurt. Normally, the sound of her voice was soothing and beautiful. But now… Something was wrong. He quickly mumbled a soft apology against her skin, and moved to look at her at a more equal level. "Light…try saying something."

She cracked her mouth open once more, and attempted to once again slightly scold Hope. "You sh—n't do tha.." She huffed in aggravation as the last of her voice faded away with a painful scratch. She wanted to punch something. No, not punch. She wanted to _scream_ something at someone, just to prove that she could.

It was at the moment that Snow and Fang returned, both of them laughing loudly-and incredibly obnoxiously-at a story that Snow was recalling that sounded a lot like "that one time at the bar with Serah"… Oh yes, he was the perfect target.

Lightning bolted up and marched over to Snow. She grabbed him by the collar of his coat, and easily tossed him to the ground. She had intended on chewing him out, intended on screaming every single poor quality he had just to prove that _no_, _Serah _shouldn't_ marry you._ But in her flurry of nothing but hot breaths and broken vowels and consonants, Snow went completely unfazed.

The entire group could only stare at her with wide eyes. What had happened to that cold, immobilizing tone that Lightning was famous for? Where had it gone? Lightning absolutely fumed. She supposed that she would just have to settle with a swift kick to his side, and stomped away.

Hope was surely the bravest of them all. He quietly trailed after her with nothing but concern and worry clear in his mind. "Light, hold on." He easily stopped her when he finally grasped her wrist in his, and she skidded to a halt.

She meant to yell at him, to tell him to leave her alone; that she needed to work off some steam. But she _couldn't_. Her anger was far from dissipating, that is, until another soft, squeaky-sounding sneeze came from her.

Hope couldn't help the amused look on his face, nor the sweet licorice that was his soft laughter. A deep shade of crimson settled on her cheeks, and she flicked him on the head. He then reached up to do the same to her, and he swore for just a second that he saw a small pout form on her features. Though as quickly as that pout had appeared, it was replaced with a tender smile that made Hope's heart warm and fuzzy.

Maybe this wasn't so bad after all..


End file.
